The Link Between

Sometimes I think of the Recovery Life Coach as the link.  The link between sobriety and relapse, between feeling joyful and free or feeling like a prisoner, or perhaps even between life and death in recovery.  

Recovery programs can help us learn how to deal with life on life’s terms…but there are times for many of us where we need to reach outside of a recovery program to get more support we need in dealing with our fears, and our shame.   This is where a Recovery Coach may just be the door that prevents an individual from relapse or even suicide.  It is in the emotional growth that opportunity and possibilities exist!  This is where a flip in an individuals life can happen so drastically that what occurs is an inner sense of balance, well being and joy!  At least that’s what happened for me! 

I had 12 years in recovery, working the steps, making meetings regularly, and reading the big book, yet I carried shame with me.  No matter how many more meetings I attended or how much more I worked the steps, the negative voices in my head about things I “should” of done differently with my children kept coming up for me.  12 years of recovery, and I was standing outside one day, screaming “SHUT UP” to the negative repetitive voices, the ones that kept playing out my over and over and over in my head.  I began contemplating suicide, believing it was my only way out of the torment. 

The big book offers many many suggestions for staying sober today.  Yet for me at least, I was still floundering in my shame.  That god awful shame that was in the core of my being, the repetitive thinking that kept me locked in my own prison of hell.  Today I know I am not alone, I have watched many “old timers” (anyone with over ten years) reach the same place I reached, and either relapse or commit suicide.  I was lucky, I discovered life coaching.  It was my coach that taught me how to get rid of the voices, and turn things around, how to hear the shame and then to let it go.  I had never even heard of life coaching prior to that, and that is precisely why I decided to go to school and got the training so that I could coach my fellow recovering addicts and be that link between recovery and joy.  I didn’t give up the program, in fact I worked with my coach for three months, the average length for coaching, and all the while incorporated my coaching into my program. 

Today I am a recovery life coach and I work with individuals who are in recovery from drugs and alcohol.  I work with people who are transitioning out of treatment, and I work with people in all stages of their recoveryprograms…in fact although I am a member of AA, and a SMART Recovery facilitator, I strongly believe that whatever works for the individual is the right program for them. 

Life coaching is NOT paid sponsorship, in fact, they are completely different in many ways.  A sponsor helps a person work and understand the program of AA, where a coach can work and usually does work with a person on issues that keep them from having that inner joy and serenity.  A coach works with individuals when they are looking to make change and want a partner, someone who is there to work with them towards that change, no matter how big or small it happens to be.  A sponsor is a volunteer, and works with people to understand the twelve steps and how to use them in their life.  The motivator for the sponsor in doing so is a way to keep them self sober.  A coach is a paid professional, working within the clients agenda, the focus is 100% on helping the individual achieve his or her goals and dreams- not the coach’s, and a recovery life coach is that same coach, with the added knowledge and the personal experience of addiction and recovery.